Democracy According to Alexander Tytler

In the wake of the government shutdown we have to ask ourselves the glaring question: "Where are  we going and why are we in this handbasket?  Perhaps this is why..."

Alexander Tytler, a Scottish history professor at the University of Edinborough (1887) has been credited with the following:

A democracy is always temporary in nature; it simply cannot exist as a permanent form of government. A democracy will continue to exist up until the time that voters discover that they can vote themselves generous gifts from the public treasury. From that moment on, the majority always votes for the candidates who promise the most benefits from the public treasury, with the result that every democracy will finally collapse due to loose fiscal policy, which is always followed by a dictatorship.

Great nations rise and fall. They always progress through the following sequences:

• From bondage to spiritual faith;
• From spiritual faith to great courage;
• From courage to liberty;
• From liberty to abundance;
• From abundance to selfishness;
• From selfishness to complacency;
• From complacency to apathy;
• From apathy to dependence;
• From dependence back into bondage.

Which of the above stages do you think we are in?  Post your thoughts below.